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Sage Karam hoping for an IndyCar ride in 2014

Sage Karam won the Indy Lights championship last week and his hoping to parlay that success into an IndyCar ride. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

What’s next for Sage Karam?

Normally, the question for high school seniors is college or elsewhere. But Karam is doing more than finishing his senior year at Nazareth (Pa.) High School.

Karam is the Indy Lights champion, and part of the prize is $1 million that can be applied to an IndyCar Series ride in 2014.

Karam won the series title Saturday night at Auto Club Speedway when he finished one position behind his closest challenger, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports teammate Gabby Chavez. Karam was third, winding up 11 points ahead of Chavez.

Karam signed a one-year contract with Sam Schmidt when the year started. Actually, he signed that just prior to the first race in St. Petersburg, Fla. Now a new contract awaits, and while Karam doesn’t sound like he expects to get a full-time job alongside Simon Pagenaud in the IndyCar Series, he’s obviously thinking he can be a part-timer.

“Sam Schmidt runs an awesome operation [with Ric Peterson],” said Karam, who was an Indy Lights rookie this season. “They’ve put together an awesome organization, and I love being there.

“I’m pretty sure when we start talking about next year Sam is going to be the first guy we talk to.”

Karam hoped to have that conversation sometime this week.

Schmidt has not discussed the team’s plans publicly, in part because he will first need to replace HP, which will no longer sponsor Pagenaud’s car due to a cutback in its global marketing structure. Tristan Vautier, the 2012 Indy Lights champion, drove the No. 55 car for the team this year, but he often struggled and finished 20th in the standings.

Karam will have just turned 19 when the IndyCar Series starts March 30, but he won’t be the youngest driver in the sport’s history. Nelson Philippe was 17 years, 8 months and 25 days when he competed in the Champ Car race at Long Beach in 2004. Five other drivers, including fellow Nazareth driver Marco Andretti, were younger than Karam will be next March when they made their IndyCar Series debuts. The youngest Indianapolis 500 starter was A.J. Foyt IV, who ran the 2003 race on his 19th birthday.

But Karam is clearly on his way to something somewhere. Indy Lights again? Maybe the IndyCar Series for a few races.